American Greetings and Hallmark Turn Topical in Battle Against Ecards
We blogged recently on Greeting Card Search about the new Ellen Degeneres cards from American Greetings and the new line of Pop Goes the Culture cards from Hallmark. An article in the New York Times says this is part of a new topical card trend. Greeting card publishers are moving towards topical cards as they try and compete with electronic greetings. The Times articles says that even though ecards have made a dent in the greetings business 90% of U.S. households still purchase paper greeting cards.
Competing for consumers who spend less time browsing to find the perfect card and who increasingly communicate with friends electronically, the two companies - which dominate the $7.5 billion industry - are appealing to women who, according to their research, like humorous takes on their everyday travails. They also purchase 80 percent of all paper greeting cards.
"Women told us that everyday life had funnier situations than anything that is made up," said Beth Murdoch, director of funny cards for American Greetings, who led the company's six-month look at contemporary humor.
By pushing hard on this genre, the card companies hope to promote the idea that greeting cards can be sent anytime, not just on holidays and special occasions. Given how accustomed people have become to sending funny e-mail messages for no particular reason, they may start to view traditional cards in the same light, the logic goes.
While the paper card market is declining, it is still five times as large as the e-card market, according to the Greeting Card Association, a trade group. Ninety percent of United States households still buy paper greeting cards, and the average household buys 30 a year, the association said.
The article also discusses some of the efforts Hallmark is making to be topical and funny. Hallmark's humor card buyer Stephen B. King told the Times,
"Our goal is to get 80 percent to 90 percent of our customers to laugh out loud by presenting more characters and more real-life situations." In an effort to find out what makes people LOL Hallmark had several dozen of its employees watch YouTube videos and comb through eBay listings.
The Times says nearly one-fifth of the cards in Hallmark's Shoebox line are now tied to current events. Nothing says current events like celebrity gossip so Hallmark has several celebrity cards in stores. There was even a timely "Paris Goes to Jail" card in stores during Paris Hilton's jail sentence.
Popbytes displays a few more of Hallmark's celebrity cards -including cards for Simon Cowell, Martha Stewart and Dr. Phil - in this post. There's also a Fun with Rachael Ray card.
